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GLASGOW
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS DEPARTMENT

Book of the Month

January 2003

Historia de

Tlaxcala

Mexico: 1585
Sp Coll MS Hunter 242 (U.3.15)

The choice for the first book of the month of 2003 is Diego
Muñoz Camargo's Historia de Tlaxcala. This is a Sixteenth Century
manuscript originating in post-Spanish conquest Mexico and deals with the
social, political, military, religious and cultural history of the
Province of Tlaxcala. This manuscript has been chosen not only because it
is beautiful, unique and historically important but also because it is
currently being exhibited in London at the Royal Academy's Aztecs
exhibition. This exhibition is the most comprehensive survey of Aztec
culture ever mounted, bringing together some 350 outstanding works
highlighting the splendours, variety and sophistication of the Aztec
civilisation.

The Historia is a very unusual manuscript in that
it can be separated into three different sections; one textual and two
pictorial written in Spanish and native Náhuatl. The three different
sections have names in their own right; the textual section is known as
the Relaciones Geográficas or Descripción de la ciudad y
provincia de Tlaxcala while the two pictorial sections are known as
the Tlaxcala Calendar and Tlaxcala Codex. Although the
subjects and issues covered in all three sections are linked, it is
unclear whether they were all produced at the same time, though it is
known that they were not produced by the same author. Written on European
paper using pen and china-ink, the manuscript survives bound in its
original vellum with gilded and goffered edges.

The textual section is the easiest part to date, originally having been written between 1581 and 1584 by the
Tlaxcaltecan historian, Diego Muñoz Camargo. The text is an extended
version of the questionnaire, the Relaciones Geográfica, issued at
the order of Philip II of Spain and sent to every town and province of New
Spain. It covered topics such as population demographics, political
jurisdictions, languages spoken, physical terrain and native vegetation to
name but a few. The information gathered would provide a massive database
on what the Spanish Empire comprised of and the possibilities achievable
for the Crown with the resources at its disposal.

The task of commissioning a response to the
questionnaire in the Province of Tlaxcala fell to the alcademayor,
the Alonso de Nava. He thought Diego Muñoz Camargo, an educated mestizo
(half-Indian, half-Spanish) the most appropriate person to prepare a
report. Camargo was the son (probably illegitimate) of a Spanish
conquistador and an indigenous Indian woman. He spent a good period of his
youth in Mexico City where he became fluent in Spanish and the local
Indian language, Náhuatl, through teaching Indians who had been brought
back from Florida. Camargo became acquainted with Tlaxcala through
properties his father owned in the town, later settling and marrying a
Tlaxcaltecan noblewoman, Leonor Vázquez. He was well enough respected and
had a good enough grounding in native Tlaxcaltecan history and language
that few would have been more qualified for thetask ofwriting
the Relaciones Geográfica.

Both the textual Descripción de la ciudad y provincia
de Tlaxcala and the supplementary pictorial Tlaxcala Codex
deal with the history of the province of Tlaxcala from the beginning of
the conquest of the region by the Spanish. At the time of Hernan Cortés'
arrival (1519), the Mexican plateau was predominantly populated by
Náhuatl-speaking Indians whose close-knit political organisation, the
Aztec empire, had been developing for around 150 years. The one great
exception to this Sixteenth Century superpower was the province of
Tlaxcala. Sitting to the east of Tenochtitlán (Mexico City), the
Tlaxcaltecas had defended a territory of some size and held the Aztecs,
or Mexicas as they are often known, at bay while the Aztec Empire began
to engulf them. On their arrival, the Spanish were welcomed with open
arms by the Tlaxcaltecas who became their main indigenous ally in the
war to conquer the Aztec Empire.

Folio 239v
The erection of the first cross in New Spain by the twelve friars
from the order of St. Francis

Folio 239r
A human sacrifice ceremony observed by Spaniards. They are
denounced for holding the pagan offering of a decapitated quail

The Tlaxcala Codex can be
considered a supplementary section of Camargo's Descripción,
as they both deal with the same topics; the joint history of the
Tlaxcaltecas and the Spanish in their wars against the Aztecs and the
evangelical battle for Christianity. The Codex comprises of 157
images drawn in pen and china-ink and then captioned above in Náhuatl
(although many of the Náhuatl captions have subsequently been lost
through cropping). Each image and caption has then been glossed
underneath in Spanish by a different hand. These drawings are almost
certainly not the work of Camargo since certain errors exist in the
drawings and captions that suggest a less-well-informed person carried
out the work. It has been suggested that the Codex might in fact
be an independent work, copied in whole, or part from an existing work.
Some eighty of the drawings appear to be nearly identical to those found
on the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, a mid Sixteenth Century Mexican
manuscript which may have acted as a form of template for the Codex.

Detail from folio 239r
Caption in Náhuatl describes how people
are killed in the "house of the devil". Many original
captions were lost through cropping when the manuscript was bound

Folio 245vA map of the monastery of Tlaxcala
including the church, bell tower, orchard and 73 steps to the church
patio

The text and accompanying Codex drawings deal with
many different events and nuances of Sixteenth Century Tlaxcaltecan life.
The city of Tlaxcala is described, with all of its main streets and
buildings; the Casas Reales of the four leaders of Tlaxcala along
with the churches and monasteries established are all detailed. The allied
campaign that the Tlaxcaltecas and Spanish waged against the Aztecs is
documented in full. The battle of Cholula and its subsequent destruction,
the death of the Aztec King, Motecuhzoma II, the noche triste,
where the Spanish were driven from Tenochtitlán, the battle of Otumba and
the final battle for Mexico are all described.

Folio 316rThe battle of Nochtlan

The evangelical battle
to convert the Indians from their traditional gods to the Christian faith is also documented.
From the arrival of the first twelve Franciscan friars, the
erection of the first cross, the first baptisms, to the
meting out of swift justice to those converts slipping back
into "idolatrous" ways. In order to evangelise the
Indians, the Spanish seemed determined to show the power of
their god over the polytheist native
religion. This not only involved preaching of the gospel but
also the destruction of indigenous places of worship and the
burning of many ancient written religious and cultural
histories. Camargo is very critical of these destructive
acts; as a historian he would have recognised the
irreparable damage being done in the Spanish drive to
convert the Indians to Christianity. He recognised the
importance of preserving whatever history the Indians still
had and spent much time in his text describing the
traditional beliefs of the Indians. He describes the belief
in the existence of four worlds before the current one and
traditional ideas on genesis. This recognition in the
importance of traditional culture and history is probably
why the third pictorial section of the Historia; the Tlaxcala
Calendar is included.

Folio 242rFranciscan friars burning
traditional books and clothes. The images in the fire
represent the destruction of the old gods whose masks
correspond to the twenty signs of the tonalamatl

Folio 241vPunishment and
"justice" for a convert to Christianity who has
"slid back" into idolatry ways. According
to the Náhuatl caption he is
to be hanged the very next day

Recto of insert between
folio 177 and 178

The Calendar
comprises two separate astronomical diagrams describing
the traditional Mexican calendrical system. These diagrams
take the form of two calendar wheels that are found between
folios 177 and 178 of the manuscript. The first, designed by
Francisco de las Navas, a Franciscan monk correlates the
twenty signs of the tonalamatl, at the centre, with
the 52 years of the xiuhmolpilli, at the
circumference, showing how the four special signs combine
with thirteen special numbers to produce 52 year names.
These are further correlated with the Christian calendar,
from 1 Reed (1519) when Cortés arrived to 13 Rabbit (1570).
The second calendar wheel was designed by an Indian governor
of Tlaxcala, Antonio de Guevara. It shows, 18 months of the
Mexican year and the five days without feasts of the 365 day
year; the sign for each feast, an explanation of the sign
and the name and the correlation with the months of the
Christian calendar. A note explains how each month is
divided into a 20-day period named after the moon, meztli,
which is depicted in the centre of the wheel. Among the many
calendar wheels included in histories of the Spanish
colonial period, these two wheels have the acknowledged
distinction of being the earliest.

Although Camargo is very critical of the
acts of cultural and historical destruction perpetrated by
the Spanish, the overall tone of the Historia is far
more ambivalent. The shared history of the Tlaxcaltecas and
Spanish and the unique relationship they maintain is
suggested quite deliberately throughout. The Historia was
compiled as a gift for Philip II and these references were
almost certainly an attempt to curry favour with the Crown
and establish privileges for the Tlaxcaltecas. Camargo was
interpreter for a Tlaxcaltecan delegation of Indians
including Antonio de Guevara who travelled to Spain in 1584.
It was in Madrid, the next year, that the copying and
binding of the Historia was finally completed. The
purpose of this visit was to secure additional privileges
for the Tlaxcaltecan court; the adulatory nature of the Historia
may have assisted the delegation, for the same year
Royal cedulas were issued granting a series of new
exemptions and immunities to Tlaxcala. However, the
benefits - irregardless of the manuscript's significance in
their being granted - were short-lived. Subsequent years saw
the Spanish authorities pursue a rigorous programme imposing
stronger Crown control over New World territories in order
to ensure maximum profit: this included the reversal of
Tlaxcala's exemptions. As Eleanor Wake notes, very quickly,
"Tlaxcala became but another source of tributary income".

Verso of insert between
folio 177 and 178

The Historia de Tlaxcala appears to
have remained in the Biblioteca Real, housed in El Escorial
near Madrid at least until the early Seventeenth Century
after which its fate becomes obscure until purchased by Dr.
William Hunter for his museum established in 1768. Upon his
death, Hunter bequeathed his collection; the Historia included,
to Glasgow University. The manuscript remained largely
unknown to scholars for some considerable time and did not appear on the census of
Mesoamerican manuscripts of 1975. René Acuña published the
first facsimile edition of the manuscript under the title Descripción
de la ciudad y provincia de Tlaxcala, Mexico in 1981 and
the Historia has since gained deserved and widespread
recognition as one of the most historically important early
Mesoamerican documents extant.